News Release

Strategic alliance between LifeWay and WORDsearch promises new choices for Bible-software users

Nashville, TN—May 17, 2004 —Bible Navigator™ is entering only its eighth month on the market, but already the creators of the popular new Bible software are taking steps to develop the brand. LifeWay Christian Resources is moving aggressively to provide its vast library of Bible resources in electronic form to make preaching, teaching and learning the Bible easier and more rewarding for consumers.

A recent agreement between LifeWay and WORDsearch Corp LLC enables LifeWay to create new electronic products that combine the strength of LifeWay’s Bible, book and literature publishing content with WORDsearch’s advanced Bible-software technology. The new business relationship gives LifeWay rights to both the Navigator software as well as the Internet technology that powers the bible.lifeway.com area on LifeWay’s web site, lifeway.com.

“For more than a century LifeWay has been providing high-quality biblical content,” said Tim Vineyard, LifeWay’s chief information officer. “Our relationship with WORDsearch now creates seemingly endless possibilities to use software technology to present these and future resources in practical and exciting ways.”

Potential LifeWay content that could be integrated through the new agreement include Bible studies, thousands of ministry and Christian-living articles, as well as countless books and other resources.

Bible Navigator, one of several Bible software products on the market today, is seeing strong success since its November 2003 launch, according to Rhonda Stewart, manager of LifeWay’s e-business solutions area. “We believe Bible Navigator offers several great values including quick searches and cross-references you can perform with just a click of the mouse, as well as the user friendliness the software offers. And it meets the needs of a wide spectrum of users – from new Christians to biblical scholars. The software grows with you.”

The inaugural product of Bible Navigator is the Holman Christian Standard Edition. It includes two Bible translations and 11 reference works with fast and versatile features for many types of uses. Thousands of copies already are being used by students, teachers, pastors and other people desiring to know the Bible better.

The newest release in the software series is the Bible Navigator New American Commentary (NAC) edition, currently available only through LifeWay’s Clubs and Plans program. Customers may choose to purchase either the introductory edition, which comes with four volumes of the NAC or the deluxe edition that contains 31 volumes. Both editions come with the standard Bible Navigator resources, which include seven Bible translations, commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals and a host of other reference resources.

Bible software has been around since the late 1980s but only recently seems to be more readily accepted by pastors and laypersons in place of printed resources.

“LifeWay represents the largest block of Christians in the world who are serious enough about the Bible to need software tools to study and teach it,” said Randy Beck, president of WORDsearch, which has developed Bible software since 1987. “That makes LifeWay the perfect partner for WORDsearch in our mission to serve those who preach and teach to change lives.”

The new relationship could also mean a potential boost for retailers.

“There seems to be some tightening within the Bible-software industry and we’re seeing certain products rise to the top while others stagnate,” said Randy Martin, software buyer for LifeWay’s nationwide chain of 118 stores. He says Bible Navigator is showing a strong performance, second only to one other product in electronic software sales. He added that if sales of all printed reference works are included, such as the new Illustrated Holman Bible Dictionary, Bible Navigator is the 4th best selling reference product in the chain. “We’ve always done very well with the WORDsearch product line and we welcome the new agreement with them.”

Bible Navigator may be purchased at www.lifeway.com/shopping.

WORDsearch Corp, based in Austin, Texas, has been producing software and electronic books for the Christian market since 1987. It operated as NavPress Software for over 10 years before becoming WORDsearch Corp in July 2002. WORDsearch offers over 700 volumes of electronic books for Christian pastors, teachers, and laypersons through its WORDsearch™, Bible Explorer® and LESSONmaker™ software products.

LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention is one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services, including Bibles, church literature, books, music, audio and video recordings, church supplies and Internet services through lifeway.com. Established in Nashville, Tenn., in 1891, the company owns and operates 118 LifeWay Christian Stores throughout the United States, as well as two of the largest Christian conference centers in the country. Through its Broadman & Holman division, LifeWay is producing the most accurate and readable translation of the Bible ever – the Holman Christian Standard Bible – available for viewing online at lifeway.com and in stores in April 2004. LifeWay is a religious nonprofit organization that receives no funding from the denomination, and reinvests income above operating expenses in mission work and other ministries around the world.

for more information, contact

Randy Beck, WORDsearch Corp.
3006 Longhorn Blvd. #110, Austin, TX 78758 1-800-888-9898
rbeck@wordsearchbible.com

WORDsearch™, LESSONmaker™, Bible Explorer®, and CROSS™ are trademarks of WORDsearch Corp. Other trademarks are property of their respective companies.